If this is it, I wouldn't be remotely surprised. Looks typical VW and the sad car design they're producing of late - archaic, bland or ugly, plus worse than the model it's replacing.

And when it dies at the dealership VW will say "We were brilliant geniuses not to waste time on giving a lick of effort given that the sedan market is dying. So what if our #1 nameplate is obliterated!"

My feeling is that the sedan market is reconfiguring and that sedans will be with us for some time. A brand like Ford or Chevy/Holden will always have sedans, but the number and trims of available sedans will shrink.

Although I think the Civic is over-styled to the point of being garish, it has excellent proportions and is an example of Honda fighting hard for market share. The Jetta has kept VW alive in the USA over the years. The current one is a lazy effort and I am not certain that a VW "Civic" is up their sleeve.

I do think it's real, but I don't think it's a US-spec car, based on the license plate cut-outs which look to fit typical Chinese plates. Considering VW is going to introduce the new Jetta for the US at LA in November, it's likely either it's going to be this (which is awful), or a rebadged Lamando from China.

He is. His speculation is bunk, but I still check-in on his site occasionally, because he'll post blurrier shots of legitimate prototypes before better pictures appear elsewhere, like this sedan or the new mystery VW SUV he also posted up the other day:

It could easily be a VW "Edge" to slot between the Tiguan and the Atlas. The Touareg is just wrong in every conceivable way for the US market. It's $20K overpriced. It's not an especially good SUV for its price either. Thus the Atlas--in the USA--is its "replacement" and an "Edge" would cover a gap in their product line.